Spiritual sustenance: How bread plays a role in religion

Wednesday

NORTH CANTON, Ohio -- A look at challah and other breads used in religious traditions.

Last year, accountant Jim Ferraro decided he’d rather be rolling out dough than crunching numbers, so he opened the Hazel Artisan Bakery Cafe at 1176 S. Main St.

One of Ferraro’s offerings is challah, a traditional bread that is served at dinner on the Jewish Sabbath. Pronounced “ha-LAH,” challah also is served during Jewish holidays except Passover, when food products containing yeast are forbidden. (The Passover seder instead includes matzo, an unleavened bread symbolizing the affliction and suffering of slavery, and the haste with which the Israelites left Egypt.)

Throughout the centuries, bread has played a central role in many religious observances. For example, the Bible contains more than 100 references to bread.

Some ancient religions regard consecrated bread as divine. And in some cultures, people believe bread can cure illness and ritualistically handle it.

The word challah refers to the “dough offering” that Jews brought
to Solomon’s Temple as early as 280 B.C.E.

Ferraro, a Christian, said he learned to make challah at a bread-baking school in Vermont. On Friday mornings, he bakes about nine loaves.

“We try to stick to natural ingredients,” he said.

Braiding the Dough

Challah is made by “plaiting,” or braiding, three or five “ropes” of dough into the shape of a ladder, which, it is said, carries prayers to heaven.

During Rosh Hashanah, challah sometimes is baked into a round shape to symbolize the cycle of life and is eaten with honey in anticipation of a sweet new year.

“This bread is similar to the Easter bread that my mom and grandma made,” Ferraro said. “That’s where I learned to braid bread. The only difference is in our Easter bread, we use butter.”

In keeping with Jewish dietary laws, challah does not contain dairy products. It often is garnished with sesame or poppy seeds.

The seeds, Ferraro said, are said to represent manna -- a bread-like substances eaten by the Israelites during their 40-year sojourn in the wilderness after their liberation from slavery in Egypt.

Sanctity of Bread

“Bread, in Hebrew 'lechem,’ is surely called the staff of life,” said Rabbi John Spitzer of Temple Israel in Canton. “While there are many foods which are appreciated through blessings, there is a special blessing for bread: 'Baruch Ata Adonai eloheinu melech ha'olam Hamotzi Lechem min ha’aretz. ... Praised are You, Adonai, our God, sovereign of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.’”

Spitzer said the blessing is unique because “it hasn’t been since the Garden of Eden that bread came forth from the earth.”

“In the garden, Adam and Eve, naked as they were, needed only to reach up and take bread from the trees,” he said. “But since leaving the garden and entering the real word where people toil for their sustenance, we have wheat and water and the other ingredients which, through our efforts, are turned into flour and baked into bread. But when we bless that bread which we have baked, we still use the ancient memory of the perfection when God brought forth bread from the earth. It is, in its own way, a prayer for messianic times when we will return to the garden once more and return to that perfection when bread will once again grow whole and abundant and available.”

Last Supper

In Christianity, bread serves as a symbol of Jesus, who is recorded in the Gospel of John as describing himself as the “Bread of Life.”

The word Bethlehem, Jesus’ birthplace, is Hebrew for “house of bread.”

The New Testament records Jesus distributing bread and wine among his followers during his last Passover seder. After declaring the elements to be a sign of his impending sacrifice, he instructs his disciples to keep the tradition in his remembrance.

Today, Christians continue to use some form of bread during Communion. Many churches use wafers, a form of unleavened bread, in keeping with Jesus’ last Passover meal, which included unleavened bread in keeping with Jewish law.

Early Christians frequently dined communally, which, because of their Jewish heritage, always included bread.

Not every religion regards bread as important to its tenets. In Islam, bread does not carry the same spiritual weight as it does for Christians and Jews. However, it is regarded as a blessing from Allah, and it is an important symbol of alms-giving and hospitality. Special breads are a part of Id al-Fitr, the feast that follows Ramadan, the holy month of fasting.

The Venerable Abbot Shih Ying-fa of the CloudWater Zen Buddhist temple in Cleveland said that because rice was the main stable in Asia, “breaking bread” carries little significance in Buddhism.

Canton (Ohio) Repository

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